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Yayoi Kusama, 97-year-old art superstar · The Front

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hi, it's Kristen from the front. This episode was originally
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  Speaker 1: published on November 30, 2024. We're bringing it to you
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: again now to mark the death of Yayoi Kusama in
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Japan on August 27, 2026.
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  Speaker 2: So the first thing I was going to ask you
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  Speaker 2: is why have I never heard of Yayoi Kusama and
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: should I be ashamed of myself? From The Australian, this
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  Speaker 2: is the weekend edition of The Front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 2: This is our first episode in something new we're doing
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: here on The Front, regular weekend episodes where we bring
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  Speaker 2: you the best of arts and culture. The weekday news
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: gets so busy, we don't often get a chance to
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  Speaker 2: pause and talk about the things we love a lot. Film, TV,
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  Speaker 2: the visual arts, dance, music... Today I'm sitting down with
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  Speaker 2: one of the Australian's smartest people, Tim Douglas. He's the
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  Speaker 2: editor of Review and he's recently returned from a trip
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  Speaker 2: to Japan, exploring the work of one of that country's
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  Speaker 2: most mysterious and intriguing artists, who also happens to be
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  Speaker 2: wildly popular around the world. You can watch a video
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  Speaker 2: of my interview with Tim and see some of Yayoi
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  Speaker 2: Kasama's heart-burstingly bright and optimistic work right now at theaustralian.com.au.
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  Speaker 3: There's an island called Naoshima between Hiroshima and Osaka. The
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  Speaker 3: island's very well known for two pumpkins by Yayoi Kasama.
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  Speaker 2: This is Tim Douglas telling me about his recent trip
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  Speaker 2: to Japan. Two things to know, Yayo Kusama is famous
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  Speaker 2: for huge sculptures of pumpkins, like we're talking six metres tall,
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  Speaker 2: five and a half metres across, giant pumpkins, painted in
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  Speaker 2: her signature motif, polka dots.
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  Speaker 3: The first is when you arrive on the ferry, there's
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  Speaker 3: this black and red pumpkin that sits there.
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  Speaker 4: The second one is on the other side of the island.
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  Speaker 3: Now, to get there, you can walk, but it's quite
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  Speaker 3: a vertiginous landscape at times. And so I decided to
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  Speaker 3: kind of grab a little e-bike and totter along. I
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  Speaker 3: had a beautiful little basket. It was bedotted, which was
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  Speaker 3: an agreeable little compliment to my day.
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  Speaker 4: And so I... Oh, really? It was polka dotted, the bike? Yeah,
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  Speaker 4: it was polka dotted, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: In tribute to her? Well, I assume so, yeah. And
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  Speaker 3: so I tottered on up the hill. And you kind
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  Speaker 3: of get to the Venice City House Museum and... Just
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  Speaker 3: below that is this pumpkin that's literally called Pumpkin. It's
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  Speaker 3: on a pier and it's been there since 1994. A
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  Speaker 3: couple of years ago, that pumpkin was washed away in
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  Speaker 3: a typhoon and it was painstakingly remodelled and reworked and
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  Speaker 3: replaced a couple of years ago. I think it's a
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  Speaker 3: real metaphor for Kusama herself because there's this pumpkin perch.
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  Speaker 4: There's a lot of peace here. Precariously on a pier.
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  Speaker 3: It's kind of framed by the beautiful mountains of the Kawagab.
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  Speaker 3: Prefecture in the background, you know, it sits there on
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  Speaker 3: this precipice, exposed to the elements, and it feels like
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  Speaker 3: it could be just one calamitous event away from terminal decline.
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  Speaker 4: And yet it endures.
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  Speaker 3: It's this beautiful beacon of hope and beauty at the
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  Speaker 3: end of the world.
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  Speaker 2: Kusama is herself a beacon of hope and beauty. She's
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  Speaker 2: 95 years old. And today she's the biggest selling artist
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  Speaker 2: in the world. Her works are acclaimed by the great
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  Speaker 2: critics and curators and by the masses because her work
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  Speaker 2: just happens to be perfect for Instagram. But Yayoi Kusama
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  Speaker 2: lives alone in a psychiatric hospital in Japan and she's
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  Speaker 2: been there since the 1970s. She had a childhood of
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  Speaker 2: deep trauma. Some of it was shared with the whole
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  Speaker 2: nation of Japan. And some of it was as intimate
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  Speaker 2: as you can get. Tim, I was horrified to discover
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  Speaker 2: the other day that the world's biggest selling artist is
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  Speaker 2: someone I've never heard of. Why have I never heard
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  Speaker 2: of Yayoi Kusama?
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  Speaker 3: Well, you shouldn't be ashamed about that, Claire, because in fact,
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  Speaker 3: it's been part of her struggle as an artist for
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  Speaker 3: eight decades now to gain that kind of global recognition.
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  Speaker 2: She was born in 1929, of course, just before the
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  Speaker 2: immense national trauma that Japan went through of World War II.
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  Speaker 2: But there's a very personal story of trauma and difficulty
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  Speaker 2: in her life, isn't there? What happened to her?
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  Speaker 3: Kusama, at the age of about eight, began having these hallucinations,
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  Speaker 3: these polka dots. That has been the kind of prevailing
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  Speaker 3: narrative of her practice for now, you know, 85 years.
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  Speaker 4: She had a difficult childhood.
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  Speaker 3: Her mother certainly did not encourage her art, in fact,
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  Speaker 3: would tear it up in front of her Having an
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  Speaker 3: artist in the family at that time, of course, a
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  Speaker 3: very conservative time in Japanese history, was to bring shame
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  Speaker 3: on the family. Her father was basically an absent dad.
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  Speaker 3: Her mother would send her on espionage attempts to watch
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  Speaker 3: his many extramarital activities with other women. And she has
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  Speaker 3: spoken quite publicly about the sort of lifelong effect and
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  Speaker 3: fear of sex, in fact, that that has engendered in her.
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  Speaker 3: She eventually broke away from her family. came across a
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  Speaker 3: book of Georgia O'Keeffe paintings. Georgia O'Keeffe, of course, being
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  Speaker 3: a star of the American art world at that time
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  Speaker 3: and someone that Kusama really admired because she was not
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  Speaker 3: only a female who had risen to the top, but
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  Speaker 3: she painted the same sort of environmental paintings that Kusama painted.
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  Speaker 3: And so she got in touch with Georgia O'Keeffe. Georgia
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  Speaker 3: O'Keeffe responded and gave her the numbers of some people
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  Speaker 3: in America. And Kusama decided in 1956, it was time
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  Speaker 3: for her to fulfill this prophecy she had that she
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  Speaker 3: would rise to the top. She left for New York,
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  Speaker 3: climbed the Empire State Building and kind of said to herself,
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  Speaker 3: here we go.
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  Speaker 2: This young Japanese woman hits 1950s America and she starts
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  Speaker 2: doing something that was blindingly new at the time. Happenings,
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  Speaker 2: guerrilla art shows, kind of like flash mobs before TikTok.
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  Speaker 2: She'd just show up in public with her art. This
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  Speaker 2: happened at the Venice Biennale in 1966. Kusama wasn't invited
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  Speaker 2: to show her work, so she showed up anyway, along
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  Speaker 2: with 1,500 silver reflective spheres about the size of bowling balls.
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  Speaker 2: She spread them across the ground right in front of
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  Speaker 2: the fancy art show, and she stood in the middle
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  Speaker 2: of them wearing a gold kimono. It was quite a sight,
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  Speaker 2: and it was a direct poke at the self-absorption of
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  Speaker 2: the art world. That set her on the path to
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  Speaker 2: becoming one of the world's most provocative and talked-about artists,
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  Speaker 2: although she had many years of struggle ahead. That work,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Narcissus's Garden with the Mirrored Balls, has just been purchased
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  Speaker 2: by the National Gallery of Victoria, the NGV, and it's
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  Speaker 2: about to stage the biggest retrospective of her work ever
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  Speaker 2: in the Southern Hemisphere. The NGV has also bought, by
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  Speaker 2: the way, a giant 11-legged, 9-ton dancing pumpkin. Those two
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  Speaker 2: sales are part of the annual 90 million US dollars
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  Speaker 2: Kusama is raking in nowadays, outselling the likes of Jeff
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  Speaker 2: Koons and David Hockney.
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  Speaker 4: How's she regarded now in Japan?
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  Speaker 3: Now is a very different story to when she returned
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  Speaker 3: to Japan in the 1970s. She was treated as a
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  Speaker 3: bit of a scandal queen there because she'd been part
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  Speaker 3: of that pop movement. She staged naked protests, which didn't
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  Speaker 3: translate well in Japan, which of course is still emerging
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  Speaker 3: from the long shadow of World War II and remains
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  Speaker 3: a pretty conservative country. And so she didn't really have
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  Speaker 3: an ally at all. There was one young curator at
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  Speaker 3: the time, Akira Tachihata, at the National Gallery who took
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  Speaker 3: an interest in her. And in the early 90s, he
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: was the commissioner for the Japanese pavilion at the Biennale.
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  Speaker 3: He chose Kusama. That changed the course of her career.
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  Speaker 3: So today she's regarded as a national treasure.
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  Speaker 2: Coming up, what life is like now for Yayoi Kusama.
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  Speaker 2: While I've got you, if you're intrigued by our different
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: theme music today on The Front, our producer Jasper Leake
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  Speaker 2: composed this as a variation on his original theme for
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: The Front, which plays in our weekday episodes. We hope
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  Speaker 2: you like it as much as we do. We'll be
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  Speaker 2: back after this break. I love the image of you
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  Speaker 2: on the polka-dotted bike. You sound like you were the
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  Speaker 2: most conspicuous person on the island that day. What took
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  Speaker 2: you to Japan in the first place? Was this the
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  Speaker 2: point of the trip?
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  Speaker 4: Not initially.
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  Speaker 3: Although when I was there, there was an opportunity to
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  Speaker 3: get to Naoshima presented itself. And, you know, I grabbed
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  Speaker 3: that with both hands because I'd been wanting to go
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  Speaker 3: there for 10 years or so. While I was there,
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  Speaker 3: I met Mr. Tatehata, who is a cultural giant in Japan.
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  Speaker 3: He was the former director of the National Gallery in Osaka.
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  Speaker 3: He's also an acclaimed poet. And he is one of
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  Speaker 3: Kusama's closest friends. He will receive calls from her once
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  Speaker 3: a week. He told me sometimes at two in the morning,
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  Speaker 3: She will threaten self-harm or she will call in an
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  Speaker 3: emergency and he will jump in a taxi every time.
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  Speaker 3: And when he turns up, she will be wide awake
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  Speaker 3: working and she'll say.
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  Speaker 4: What are you doing here? And so they have a
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  Speaker 4: curious relationship.
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  Speaker 3: It's not romantic in any way, but they are lifelong
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  Speaker 3: friends and they read poetry to each other and he
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  Speaker 3: will listen as she sings solos. to him and it's
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  Speaker 3: a very sweet but also a seriously professional relationship too.
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  Speaker 2: It's interesting when artists achieve late life success you know
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  Speaker 2: when anyone who is old becomes famous she's especially vulnerable
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  Speaker 2: obviously because she has this mental health condition that she's
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  Speaker 2: lived with for so long and Is she okay?
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  Speaker 3: She has such a great team of medical professionals. She
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  Speaker 3: feels comfortable in that space. And, of course, the repetitive
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  Speaker 3: nature of her work, these dots, are seen in many
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  Speaker 3: circles as a way of kind of calming her mind.
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  Speaker 3: So she has to work because otherwise she'll be enveloped
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  Speaker 3: by these dots. This idea of obliteration is something that
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  Speaker 3: appears in her work but also appears daily in her mind.
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  Speaker 3: And so she has to control these things with her practice.
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  Speaker 4: But as Mr.
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  Speaker 3: Teddy Harder said to me, she's surrounded by so many
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  Speaker 3: people and so many people around the world love her
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  Speaker 3: work and they want to be photographed in it and
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  Speaker 3: they want to know her story. And yet she's a
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  Speaker 3: very lonely person. She's disassociated from her family. She's sometimes
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  Speaker 3: disassociated from herself. And so I think that another kind
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  Speaker 3: of paradox in her psyche that I think is really
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  Speaker 3: interesting to explore because she's unlike any artist in that sense.
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  Speaker 3: She is a singularity like the dots she paints.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting to think about young people all over
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  Speaker 2: the world loving her work on Instagram, maybe having some
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  Speaker 2: level of engagement with her personal story. Maybe that's part
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  Speaker 2: of the reason why she's so intriguing. How does it
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  Speaker 2: feel for you as someone who loves art and is
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  Speaker 2: very interested in her story personally? Is it slightly troubling
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  Speaker 2: or is it an inspiring story of what art can do?
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  Speaker 3: I think it's a great story of endurance and never
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  Speaker 3: giving up. She had this promise to herself that she
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  Speaker 3: would one day kick everyone's ass and rise to the
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  Speaker 3: top of the art market and beat everything, beat all
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  Speaker 3: the fact that she was an ethnic in America, the
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  Speaker 3: fact that she was a woman at a particularly kind
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  Speaker 3: of febrile, male-dominated time.
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  Speaker 4: In the US. And she never really gave up that hope.
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  Speaker 3: Now, whether that has to do with her obsessive nature,
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  Speaker 3: and it probably does, is something that I can't answer,
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  Speaker 3: but I do think it's a great story of endurance.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I feel a lot cooler than I did before
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  Speaker 2: we started this interview, Tim, so thank you very much.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you, Claire.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Tim Douglas is The Australian's review editor. His beautiful section
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: is available inside The Australian today. I'd recommend buying the
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: print copy at your local shop, by the way. Review
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: is a great weekend treat in our house. And, of course,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: you can read it all at theaustralian.com.au. The NGV's Yayoi
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  Speaker 2: Kasama exhibition opens in Melbourne on December 15th.